Notes From The Pre-event Press Conference At Infineon Raceway

Notes From The Pre-event Press Conference At Infineon Raceway

© 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

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Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

AMA Rider Press Conference
Infineon Raceway
Sonoma, CA
April 28, 2004
11:37 a.m. to 12:06 p.m.

By Bob Dragich

Infineon hosted a press conference in anticipation of the AMA Superbike race to take place at the track this weekend. In attendance were American Honda’s Ben Bostrom, Ducati Austin’s Eric Bostrom, Attack Kawasaki’s Tony Meiring and Yoshimura Suzuki’s Ben Spies. Here are some highlights:

Tony Meiring on . . .

The new track surface: “I definitely think it’s a lot better now that it’s repaved. It’s a lot smoother. There are more opportunities to pass, like going into the Carousel, or get them in turn seven. The only thing is in turn one, because of the bank on the outside. It would be nice to run the old turn one.”

Competing if it gets warm: “I’m 20 years old, so I like the heat. I’d rather have it 100 degrees. But this track is very demanding; you don’t have any resting points. Here’ it’s fun because the winner is going to be the guy who’s in the best shape and who has the best package together with his bike.”

Ben Bostrom on. . .

The track improvements: “This place is number one in my book as far as listening to the riders and drivers. They’ve done a lot of things we asked for and actually gone beyond that. The track is glass-smooth right now, but it’s really hard on tires. It’s a lot safer now. There were a lot of corners where it was sketchy to go 110% but now you just roll through them. There’s going to be a lot more passing going on.”

Getting along with the 1000RR: “The bike stood a great chance of winning Daytona, and then we had just one little malfunction. In Fontana, it probably could have won, but the rider had a malfunction. I was way off the pace. Not to worry; Big Red’s coming.”

The horsepower fallacy: “They say that this track is a great equalizer, that you don’t really need that much horsepower, but you do. There are some hills to climb. But the guy who’s got his bike set up or is physically in shape, he’s going to win. There are six factory Superbike guys here, and everyone’s going to be on pace. It should be one of the best races of the year.”

Sharing information with his brother, Eric, who rides for a competing team but hasn’t tested the Ducati at Infineon yet. “No.”

Who got hurt more: “Not testing here really hurt Michelin, which, in turn, hurts Eric.”

Mat Mladin: “He’s always on a tear. He’s got a good setup, he’s got a good team, a good bike and he’s been doing it for a lot of years. He’s dialed in. I think he works pretty hard at it; he’s got a good work ethic. He’s fast here. Fontana is number one for him, and I think here is number two. But there comes a point when you think, ‘I’ve got a nice points lead; don’t crash now,” and he’s going to start thinking that.”

Qualifying times: “When I first came here in 1995, you could put on a qualifying tire and get two seconds, but now the track is so grippy, I don’t think that’s going to be the case. I think race tire time will be close to qualifying times. You can drop a little with a Q, but not that much.”

Why tire wear will be a concern: “When you lay down a new surface, it’s like when you go to the hardware store and buy a brand new sheet of sand paper. The sand’s new and it just wears things down. But when you use it, it’s just like the cars going over the pavement, you wear down the sand a little bit. It will be slippier (as time goes on), but it won’t wear down the tires (as much).”

Eric Bostrom on. . .

Scheduling: “We always try to maximize our time on the track, but it always seems that we run out of time and we have to deal with it. We’re always wishing that we had one more practice session or one more qualifying session.”

Lack of testing: “Michelin’s got great tires and they’re used to coming to tracks like this that are twisty.”

Setup vs. testing tires: “We always try to get the bike setup halfway close (to optimal) in the first 20 minutes and from there we start looking at tires. Until we can get to some tracks and test before we come back to those same tracks, that will be our game plan.”

Setting up the Ducati: “The bike’s got a real comfortable window, and we always seem to be inside that. I haven’t figured out how to get the very last ounce out of the bike yet, but that will come with just a little more time and me getting familiar with the tires and the whole package. Here I hope to get between 80 and 90% and let the tires do the rest.”

The Gray Zone: “It used to be that it was foolish to try to set up a pass at this track where you had to extend the envelope and go into that gray zone where you don’t know what’s going to happen. Now you’ll be able to do that, and the fans will get their money’s worth, and the riders will enjoy it a lot more.”

Heat-oriented strategy: “If it’s hot, and you can get out there and set your own pace and let the race come to you, then you can keep physically under control. But if you’re out there riding 110% and pushing for every ten thousandth of a second, it’s really easy to put yourself in a physical deficit the way Anthony Gobert did in 1991 when he won the race but couldn’t make it to the podium.”

The AMA never going back to Daytona: “We can only pray.”

Ben Spies on. . .

Greater opportunities: “There are probably seven more places to pass now that they repaved it.”

The Superstock competition: “We tested at Barber and we were the fastest there. My bike’s got the best base package; it’s always going to work pretty good. I don’t think we have a hold on the class because all the (other) bikes are new and they’re just going to keep working on them, developing them and they’re going to be catching up. Winning the championship won’t be as easy as last year.”

Sharing information with teammates Mat Mladin and Aaron Yates, who are on Superbikes: “The information doesn’t apply. Those bikes are totally different.”

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